New Compact Player Layout

[Steven]

I still can't help wondering what this would have looked like:

the last thing i will try is still keeping the fill area black but putting in a subtle fill pattern using the dominant picture colour

i would prefer not to do it, but if you have paint.net i was thinking of using the Divots pattern. For myself i am quite happy with how it works now

[KissCool]

?? i am not sure what you mean exactly as theright panel such as lyrics will be displayed on the picture in this mode. If its what i think you mean then it can not be accomodated

Well, sorry for my crappy english 
Let's make a SS ^^:



Both colors got the same RGB code. So dunno if the lyrics are under the panel overlay like the main picture or if the transparency setting is applied to the lyrics too.
Track info and cover is a lil' bit altered too but not as mush as the lyrics.
Of course, this feature should be implemented as an option. Those who don't want it could turn it off.
Another idea that came in my mind this night: since Musicbee act like a slideshow in compact mode, why not creating few SlideShow transition effects?
And when MusicBee is in idle mode (no music played), it could act like a regular SlideShow: it could show random artist pictures from your artists folder or another folder that you can set in preference.

[Bee-liever]

i was thinking of using the Divots pattern. For myself i am quite happy with how it works now

Thanks for the info. I really like how it is currently working, but I can now visualise that other option and would agree that it would be a lot more work, with the most likely result being that what we have now is the best result.

As the old musical saying goes
"If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it"

[spartan]

When are we likely to see a stable 2.1 release? I know there is some more work getting the compact layout refined/done but is there a good point to lock in changes and put out a 2.1 exe?

I would say i will close off development in this version after doing the Album Oriented track details view, which i would guess will be another month off. Then i will leave it another month for any bugs to be fixed so probably mid to late July.
But i think you are quite safe using the beta versions from the first topic on the forum

Oh yes, for myself personally, I've been updating with the patches in this thread.

It's just that I wholeheartedly recommend this to everyone now and it's much too hard to explain to the not so computer savvy how to unzip a patch and put it in the Musicbee folder (not to mention unblock .dlls or whatever.)

Thanks for the timeline.

[Bee-liever]

Is it possible to re-order the layers so that the visualiser is the last?
That way, it doesn't lose any of it's vibrancy when 'overlay the right panel on the picture' is used

[Alexis]

I don't not recall if we discussed this before.. but since it is possible to have items change color depending on the dominant color:
Is it possible to  remove the background strip for the artist title etc, and just have the  text color fluctuate maybe white or black depending on the background behind the text? That way it is always visible?  That way we would lose one more background and the only issue left to have a background for visibility would be the spectrum visualizer.
edit: Actually it does it already, but wondering if there could be a tweak that would allow the removal of the bar.

Side note:  I know this is likely turning into a project that has endless requests, but I suppose it is better to throw them out there before it is considered finished, since we cannot read each mind.

[Steven]

Is it possible to re-order the layers so that the visualiser is the last?
That way, it doesn't lose any of it's vibrancy when 'overlay the right panel on the picture' is used

thats already the case. It needs the black tinted background when you reduce the overlay opacity so what i have done is maintain the black tinted background (and for the track information) - not available yet.

[Steven]

I don't not recall if we discussed this before.. but since it is possible to have items change color depending on the dominant color:
Is it possible to  remove the background strip for the artist title etc, and just have the  text color fluctuate maybe white or black depending on the background behind the text? That way it is always visible?  That way we would lose one more background and the only issue left to have a background for visibility would be the spectrum visualizer.
edit: Actually it does it already, but wondering if there could be a tweak that would allow the removal of the bar.

Side note:  I know this is likely turning into a project that has endless requests, but I suppose it is better to throw them out there before it is considered finished, since we cannot read each mind.

no i wouldnt even know how to do that. The usual approach i believe is to surround the white font text with 1px of black (then the font doesnt look so good). As you say the visualiser would still be a problem. I am doubtful i will look into this for the current release

[Bee-liever]

thats already the case. It needs the black tinted background when you reduce the overlay opacity so what i have done is maintain the black tinted background (and for the track information) - not available yet.

Oh.   The visualiser is semi-transparent and picking up the increased opacity from the layer below. OK

[Steven]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

i've made quite a lot of tweaks particularily for when the panels are overlayed onto the artist picture.
For the picture overlay setting, when the opacity is set < 0.6 it fills the right hand panel with semi-transparent black so you can see the text better. Its still not ideal for low opacity settings but i am not planning to change that.

Also someone made a comment about the wavebar being slow for large songs and suggested it updates while the data is being processed. The reason i dont do that is because the graph is scaled at the end when the maximum value is know (otherwise many graphs would be too small for the narrow display area available). What i have done is made it multi-threaded so if you have >3 cpu's then it uses 2 cpus to create the graph, so halving the time.

[KissCool]

i've made quite a lot of tweaks particularily for when the panels are overlayed onto the artist picture.
For the picture overlay setting, when the opacity is set < 0.6 it fills the right hand panel with semi-transparent black so you can see the text better. Its still not ideal for low opacity settings but i am not planning to change that.

IMHO,it doesn't look really good. It was really better with the previous patch.
About the lyrics, ATM, MusicBee apply a transparency to the text. That's why it's not really readable in some cases. It's not 'cause of the overlay opacity.
So, something like this would be better:
layer #1: background (fanart) -> opacity=100%
layer #2: overlay -> opacity=0-80% (can be set in option)
layer #3: album cover, track info, lyrics and visualiser (without background) -> opacity=100%
layer #4: player bar, MusicBee icon and menu, Windows close, restore, etc. buttons

So, dunno if the lyrics are on the layer #2 or if you apply the transparency setting on the overlay and the lyrics, but I think something like this would be better:
1st picture: previous patch, opacity=40% / 2nd picture: last patch, opacity=60% / 3rd picture: how I think it should look like
    ---->         ----->    

As you can see on the third picture, lyrics are readable even without overlay. Just added a shadow effect to the fonts (since border effect doesn't look good in MusicBee). So, you should try to get ride of this transparency on the lyrics. Just my 2 cents

[Steven]

About the lyrics, ATM, MusicBee apply a transparency to the text. That's why it's not really readable in some cases. It's not 'cause of the overlay opacity.

yes i am aware of that, although and as i said in the previous post i am not planning to change that as its too much to do.
If others dont like the semi-transparent black behind the right panel (which currently kicks in if the opacity < 0.6) then i will remove it

[Steven]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

if you have win 7+ the overlay panels setting for small album covers now shows the visualiser and track info using a blurred glass effect.
I have removed the black background from the right panel in this mode but it means for low opacity settings you can hardly see the now playing/ lyrics/ biography text

[KissCool]

Well, I still prefer what you did here, before these two last patch:

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

Could we have a setting for the transparency of the overlay  (setting: overlay the right panel onto the picture)?
Something like the one for "application window":

it can now be set in the 2nd tab of the compact player settings.

[Bee-liever]

Is it possible to re-order the layers so that the visualiser is the last?
That way, it doesn't lose any of it's vibrancy when 'overlay the right panel on the picture' is used

thats already the case. It needs the black tinted background when you reduce the overlay opacity so what i have done is maintain the black tinted background (and for the track information) - not available yet.

I'm really sorry I mentioned this (the above), Steven, as the latest changes (IMHO)

if you have win 7+ the overlay panels setting for small album covers now shows the visualiser and track info using a blurred glass effect.
I have removed the black background from the right panel in this mode but it means for low opacity settings you can hardly see the now playing/ lyrics/ biography text

have undone all your hard work on the background for smaller pictures. The darker bands left for the visualiser and track info detract from the great work you did on getting the colour-blending right.

Please, please, please return it to how it was before.